retirement account contributions and tax brackets

[Sterling Hiebert]

hello all,

first time poster. I am curious about tax deferred retirement accounts and income tax brackets. I am right on the edge of the 12%/22% tax bracket making just a couple thousand too much to be in the 12%. I currently contribute to a 403B (kindof like a 401K but for NPOs and contributions are fixed), through my employer and use a Roth IRA for additional retirement investing. my question is if I opened a traditional IRA so that my contributions were coming out pre-tax along with the 403B, would that push me back down into the 12% tax bracket because that money is no longer considered income or am I stuck paying 22% no matter what?

would there be any reason why a person wouldn't want to do this? google seems to be not-forthcoming with an answer. I get the advantages/disadvantages of deferred vs exempt retirement strategies, I am just curious if it is possible to use contributions to save an additional 10% of my income every year.